


Bruised But Not Broken

by extremelyperturbed



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Drama, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-15
Updated: 2014-04-15
Packaged: 2018-01-19 11:33:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1467961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/extremelyperturbed/pseuds/extremelyperturbed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just a short where Freddie Lounds visits Chilton after Chilton gets shot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bruised But Not Broken

“Did you come to take photos of me?” said Chilton as he opened the door to his vacation house where he was recuperating from his injuries. He couldn’t bear to go back to the house where Hannibal had attacked him and framed him for murder. He knew he was going to take a bath when it came to selling the house despite a clean-up team doing a bang up job getting rid of the stains and the iron smell of blood. 

“No,” said Freddie. “Not unless you want me to.”

“I already feel pathetic. I don’t need the world to see and agree with me,” said Chilton. While the bullet had luckily missed his brain and his spinal cord, it had hit a lot of nerves that led to the left side of his body, which affected his mobility and posture. While he looked pretty good on the outside for what he had gone through, he had extensive dental repairs as the bullet had ripped and shattered several teeth from his upper jaw. It had taken more than a month for his hair to grow long enough so the scars from the operation to keep his brain from swelling to the point of injury in an enclosed space didn‘t show. The doctors and the nurses kept telling him it was a miracle but it didn’t feel like a miracle. It felt like being God‘s punching bag.

“You actually look OK,” said Freddie. There’s a scar on your cheek but it makes you look badass.”

“What do you want, Freddie?”

“I know that your medicals bills are huge even with insurance and unemployment doesn’t even cover the mortgage. You do an interview, you get a cut.”

“What? I tell the world how I was Hannibal’s patsy, the FBI fell for his shit and he got his Manchurian Candidate to try to blow my head off? Wow, as if I need to shamed some more.”

“I wouldn’t phrase it like that. You’re not a pathetic victim, you’re Saint Sebastian who survives being tormented by arrows.”

Chilton frowned. ’I think he later gets clubbed to death.”

“Crap, forgot that part of the story,” she said. She handed him her card. “If it does well, I could make it a multi-part interview, get you some more money.”

“Thanks so much. You’re . . . Besides the agents interviewing me for their stupid case . . . You’re the only one who’s visited me or bothered to leave a message asking how I am.”

“Really? Wow and people think I’m a bitch.” Freddie shook her head, her red ringlets going this way and that. “Where the hell are your fellow doctors and high society . . .”

“I think they think that I had this coming because I was messing with things I shouldn’t have been messing with . . . That I must have done something to deserve it . . .”

“Oh, fuck that,” said Freddie. “My whole job is based on doing things people don’t want me to do. That‘s how I get things done!”

Chilton pinched his nose to keep from crying in front of her. He couldn’t bear it if he ended up disgusting her as well. 

“If they had bothered to ask me, I could’ve told them that you weren’t the Ripper,” said Freddie.

“Maybe you should join the FBI. They desperately need your brains.”

“That would mean a major pay cut. No thanks.”

Chilton giggled at that. “I’ll think about your offer . . .”

“Good. People named Fred need to stick together,” she said before waving goodbye.

The End

**Author's Note:**

> People can survive being shot in the head. It's not likely but possible. One man named Phineas Gage had a railroad spike through the head and survived but his once sober & controlled behavior became more impulsive and unrestrained. 
> 
> Not a medical doctor so symptoms may not relate that much to real life.
> 
> I hate to tell you this but if a crime scene is at your house, the cops don't clean it up. You have to hire a company that specializes in this to scrub all the gross stuff out of your house. Not cheap but you shouldn't expect anybody who cleans up THAT to work for minimum wage.
> 
> I think Freddie may be the only person in that verse to have any real sympathy for Frederick.


End file.
